TV legend Ed the Sock and his sharp and funny co-star Liana K are bringing their national tour of the War on Stupid, a live multimedia comedy experience, to Sudbury on July 13 at Coulson’s nightclub.

“When I quit MuchMusic 10 years ago, I thought I’d given all of you the tools to decode media spin and manipulation and think for yourselves,” Ed the Sock said during an interview with The Star, where he displayed his iconic wit and humour. “Yeah, I was focused on music and pop culture, but calling out BS is universal. That’s what Fromage was, a step-by-step manual in seeing the different levers media uses to override critical thinking. So, I left confident that the nation was ready to think for itself. Boy, was I wrong. Intellectually, the world today is like the aftermath of a house party in an ‘80s teen movie.

“Fact is opinion and opinion is fact; literally also means figuratively; right-wing and left-wing are stupidity in stereo; ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s a voting block; knowledge isn’t power, power is spreading your lack of knowledge; Gen Xers hate on Millennials without realizing who it was that raised them. Even insults have fallen into disrepair — cuck? Cuck? What are you, a chicken? Calling someone a cuck is like wearing an I’m with Stupid T-shirt with an arrow pointing upward.”

Ed would go on, saying he feels comedy is currently under attack.

“Tell an innocuous knock-knock joke (not recommend but used for demonstration purposes) and someone will find something microscopic in it to be offended about,” Ed said. “And not offended for themselves, offended on behalf of other people — who never asked them to be.”

So, he added, he’s back with Liana to set things right.

In all his travels on TV for MuchMusic, Ed never made it to Northern Ontario — so this is a first and he and Liana are looking forward to experiencing the people and sites of the Big Nickel.

This show will also feature after-party music of Sudbury’s Fortunate Losers and Dr. Bong. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the show getting underway at 7. General admission is $20, and the VIP meet and greet is $30.

Ed said to expect plenty of laughter, but laughter that will make one think, even if you don’t know that’s what’s happening.

“We call it weaponized humour, blowing open closed minds,” Ed said. “It’s a multimedia show with pictures, videos and audience participation. And it changes every show because a lot of it happens in the moment, like classic MuchMusic was before they drove off a cliff.”

Liana, now a successful YouTube influencer with a channel of timely videos deconstructing current events, social issues, entertainment and gaming, will also bring her comedic insights to the show.

“With these live shows, I have to accept that 99 per cent of the people who attend remember Ed from MuchMusic and they have no idea who I am,” Liana said of the duo’s dynamic on stage. “So, it’s more about setting up Ed than me getting punch lines myself. That can leave me feeling like I’m not doing anything sometimes, but I’ve found that if I seem to compete with Ed too much, people misconstrue it as being bossy or attention-seeking. It’s also just not fun to see two people stepping on each other’s lines, and with how freeform the show is, that’s a risk if I’m competing for laughs.”

Liana once did logistics for a show that went through Northern Ontario every year and is looking forward to the July 13 show.

“The venues promote properly and the people are glad to have you there,” Liana said. “The biggest challenge, I guess, is travel. Traveling on the same day as a show is always dicey, and with comedy shows, you end up doing it a lot.

Ed called himself Canada’s inner voice.

“Today, people are rejecting years of restricted speech and jargon by embracing authenticity,” Ed said. “Drawn toward figures who say what they mean and mean what they say. Fine, I say what I mean and mean what I say, but that’s always been backed up by actual research-based knowledge wrapped in comedy.

“Problem is, what these people mean and say doesn’t have a shred of respect for facts or intelligence. It’s bloviating morons on the left and right being supported by people who like the idea of being able to spout whatever crap falls out of their mouths. But the majority of people aren’t idiots and want to know what’s really going, but are afraid to speak up or ask because they’ll be shouted down. I’m here for them. I’ve always been Canada’s inner voice spoken out loud. And I am loud.

“My views haven’t really changed because they were always about live and let live. But the discourse has been pulled so far right that standing in what used to be the middle is seen as left-wing. I call out stupidity wherever I see it, period.”

This will be Ed’s first time in Sudbury.

“I do videos these days from my home studio and so does Liana on her popular YouTube channel,” Ed said. “I miss the days on MuchMusic when we’d pop out the window and go on the street and be among real people, hear what they have to say, what they think, meet random interesting characters completely by accident. Liana and I both miss that, so going outside of Toronto to places like the Big Nickel is like a tonic, being among real people. And being in Northern Ontario for the first time is exciting because I like seeing stereotypes both confirmed and exploded and I am sure I’ll get a lot of that among Sudburians. Is that a term? Sudburian? Sounds like a character from Game of Thrones.”

Sudbury will be the final stop for Ed the Sock and Liana K’s #WarOnStupid Tour. In the fall, there will be a new tour, with a new focus and title.